Women's Soccer

Women's Soccer Falls to Keene State, 2-0

NORTH DARTMOUTH, MA-Visiting Keene State scored once in each half and overcame a strong defensive effort by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth's women's soccer team, 2-0, in a Little East Conference match at the UMass Dartmouth Athletic Complex Saturday.

Senior midfielder Kendra Spencer (Petoskey, MI) put the Owls on the board when she dribbled in and scored unassisted in the 19th minute. Senior forward Katie Bradford (West Lebanon, NH) capped the scoring when she converted a cross by junior midfielder Nora Mahoney (Belchertown, MA) and scored from short range in the 79th minute.

"We frustrated a team that's probably number one in the conference right now," said UMass Dartmouth Head Coach Carla DeSantis. "We executed well, and made a very good team adjust to how they played us. I'm very proud of our team and we get this effort in our other conference matches, we will go to the conference tournament."

DeSantis said that junior goalkeeper Tanya Braga (Hudson, MA/Hudson HS), junior defender Nichole Hoffman (Stoughton, MA/Stoughton HS) and senior defender Kelsey Boothby (Holbrook, MA/Holbrook HS) all acquitted themselves well. "Tanya was able to pick off all the balls when they tried to play through," DeSantis said. "Nichole usually plays defense, and we had her in the midfield today and she did a great job. Kelsey was very strong for us on defense; she was able to force them offside over and over again. She did a great job of getting everyone in position."

The Owls out shot the Corsairs, 16-4. Braga made nine saves for UMass Dartmouth, while sophomore Meghan Dempsey (Weymouth, MA) made two saves for BSC.

UMass Dartmouth dropped to 4-8-1 and 1-3-0 in the Little East Conference with the defeat, while Keene State improved to 10-3-0 and 4-0-0 with the victory. The Corsairs will return to action when they visit Plymouth State next Friday. The Owls will host Middlebury Wednesday evening.